The start of the journey for an indie game developer

I’ve been learning the ropes of being an independent app developer for a year now, and thought as it is the start of a new year, I would ‘blog’ my progress. I feel that this would benefit me, and maybe other ‘would be’ app developers.

First, a bit of history. I come from a background with no programming, graphic, music or anything computer related. I worked for an insurance company for almost 20 years, then one day decided i wanted to pursue my dream of being a computer programmer/app developer.

With the support of my lovely wife I began the slow journey to learn Java and app development . (I believed at the time that Android app development was the way forward! – more on that in a later blog).

I hope to track my progress with this blog, the high and lows, the success and failures and hopeful show some insight to fellow would be developers all aspect of being a sole App Developer.

I aim to share what I have learned, mistakes I have made, and that I will make, from the first year and going forward, as being a ‘one-man-band’ developer.

As a sole indie app developer you need to be a Jack-of-all-trades. The actual process of ‘programming’ or developing an app takes up only a half of the time. You need to be able to draw your own graphics, compose your own music and sound effects(or be able to source these cheaply or even better for free!) and the hardest part, for me anyway, marketing!

Once you have completed your app and placed on the app store, you need to be able to market and promote the app or the app will become lost in the sea of other apps. This is one area where I have so far struggled, and I will be concentrating on marketing to improve downloads, and hopefully income, in 2015!